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Tropic of Cancer
by Miller, Henry (Introduction by Karl Shapiro, Preface by Anais Nin)
- Used
- Paperback
- Condition
- Very Good+
- ISBN 10
- 0802131786
- ISBN 13
- 9780802131782
- Seller
-
Pullman, Washington, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York, New York: Grove Press, Inc., 2000. Paperback. Very Good+. Later Printing The classic erotic work that carried the First Amendment torch and defeated mid-century censorship in America. Tight and clean copy with only minor wear to edges. Packed and shipped with care.
Synopsis
Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer is one of the most notoriously and frequently censored books in the history of American literature. In a combination of autobiography and fiction, the novel centers of Miller’s own life as a struggling writer in Paris in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Tropic of Cancer is written in the first person and lacks linear organization, two of Miller’s most favored techniques. Some chapters are narratives about Miller’s friends and workplaces, and others are stream-of-consciousness-style reflections, but all of the chapters touch on the sexual exploits and general low-life ruthlessness in which the author had engaged at the time. Tropic of Cancer was first published by Obelisk Press, a French publisher of soft pornography, in Paris in 1934. Shortly thereafter, the novel was banned in the US and later tried for charges of obscenity, a trial that challenged American pornography laws at the time. In 1961, the ban of Tropic of Cancer was lifted, and later that year, Grove Press published the first US edition of the novel, but only after the firm’s Barney Rosset offered Miller a sizeable advance and promised to defend the author in any future legal battles regarding the publication. Grove Press’s edition of Tropic of Cancer sold over 1 million copies by the end of 1961… and was the subject of about 60 lawsuits as well, one of which involved the American Civil Liberties Union. All of this hullabaloo makes one wonder what the reactions might have been if Miller had decided to go with the novel’s working title, Crazy Cock — which was, ironically, far more modest than the published version. Regardless, the novel’s 1970 film adaptation, directed by Joseph Strick, received an X rating (meaning no one 17 and under admitted). Today, Tropic of Cancer finds itself ranked 50th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century and 59th on The Guardian’s list of the 100 best novels.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Retrograde Media
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- RM3056
- Title
- Tropic of Cancer
- Author
- Miller, Henry (Introduction by Karl Shapiro, Preface by Anais Nin)
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good+
- Quantity Available
- 1
- ISBN 10
- 0802131786
- ISBN 13
- 9780802131782
- Publisher
- Grove Press, Inc.
- Place of Publication
- New York, New York
- Date Published
- 2000
- Bookseller catalogs
- Erotica;
Terms of Sale
Retrograde Media
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged. Returns accepted otherwise within same window less shipping costs.
About the Seller
Retrograde Media
Biblio member since 2014
Pullman, Washington
About Retrograde Media
Retrograde Media celebrates quirky old stuff and the adjacent. This includes small press/independent publishers, collectible paperbacks, radical perspectives, and potentially anything that represents existing outside the norm.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Good+
- A term used to denote a condition a slight grade better than Good.
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